Bill Commons

VA HB 251

Status unknown

Assault and battery; creates Class 6 felony for serious bodily injury.

Virginia · 2026 Regular Session · lower

Quick answers

Did VA HB 251 pass?

The current status of VA HB 251 is not known from the official record. Latest recorded action (2026-02-13): Continued to next session in Courts of Justice (Voice Vote)

What is VA HB 251 about?

Assault and battery; serious bodily injury; penalty. Creates a Class 6 felony for any person who commits an assault and battery that results in serious bodily injury, as defined in relevant law, but does not rise to the level of the current offenses of unlawful or malicious wounding. The bill adds such new offense to the list of violent felony offenses for the purposes of the discretionary sentencing guidelines.

Who sponsors VA HB 251?

Vivian E. Watts is the primary sponsor of VA HB 251.

Description

Assault and battery; serious bodily injury; penalty. Creates a Class 6 felony for any person who commits an assault and battery that results in serious bodily injury, as defined in relevant law, but does not rise to the level of the current offenses of unlawful or malicious wounding. The bill adds such new offense to the list of violent felony offenses for the purposes of the discretionary sentencing guidelines.

Introduced
2026-01-08
Latest action
2026-02-13 — Continued to next session in Courts of Justice (Voice Vote)
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • Vivian E. Wattsprimary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

  1. 2026-01-08

    Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26102460D

    filing,introduction

  2. 2026-01-08

    Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

    referral-committee

  3. 2026-01-09

    Fiscal Impact statement From VCSC (1/9/2026 11:01 am)

  4. 2026-01-14

    Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB251)

  5. 2026-02-10

    Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal

    referral-committee

  6. 2026-02-11

    Subcommittee recommends continuing to (Voice Vote)

  7. 2026-02-13

    Continued to next session in Courts of Justice (Voice Vote)

Versions

Documents

Votes

Not provided by source.

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB251

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T05:35:59.552682Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=VA&identifier=HB 251. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.